Alric
Alric the Champion is a hero in Kingdom Rush: Frontiers. He's unlocked at wave 4 of Hammerhold. Description One of the best warriors in Hammerhold, Alric makes fighting a form of art. His discipline and training allows him to strike with lightning speed while also calling upon warrior spirits from the desert to aid him. The last of the Desert Warriors, his eyes gaze the desert like a hawk, his sword strikes true like the fangs of a viper, for he carries within himself the souls of his fallen brethren that can be summoned to fight by his side as deadly sand warriors. He has (possibly) fair skin, red fiery eyes and grey hair. He wears a red scarf, red gloves, iron armor with a spiked shoulder pad on his right shoulder, grey pants, and leather boots. He wields a cutlass and an iron shield. Lore Alric's story Some stories are branded by fate, others by sheer luck. Alric's story was forged in sand and blood. Born in a rustic tent embraced by the desert, his first breath was filled with the warm wind of the oasis. The entire tribe greeted him as the chieftain approached the crib and recited the sons of the desert's dogma: "In peace be fair and gentle as the water of the oasis, in war be unstoppable and fierce as a sandstorm.", a creed that has been followed by countless generations of Detek-en-Dil. The Detek were well known for their fierce, yet fair warriors; The desert was their home and ally, their law was the only one they obeyed. Alric grew up following his clan's credo, learning the ways of the desert and finding solace in the sands' embrace; Little did he know it would be the same sands that would soon be tainted with his brothers' blood. It was 20 years ago when the armies of the Scarlet Sultan set their sights on the desert tribes. Cruelty, tyranny, and savagery were the Sultan's means. Nothing would stop him from imposing his will over the lands. The desert tribes rebelled against him, but they were no match for the overwhelming and vicious onslaught that was set upon them. Soon the proud Detek warriors stood alone in defiance. The warriors knew that the only possible way to beat the impossible odds was to lure the overwhelming forces of the Scarlet Sultan so deep into the desert that they could never survive; so day after day the Detek retreated further into the desert taunting the Sultan and his men, steering them into their doom. When they reached the desert's heart, they set an ambush and attacked the Sultan's army; The Detek knew this was going to be the last battle of their lives as they were gravely outnumbered. The combat was brutal. The scorching sand became tainted with the blood of the Sultan's army as each brave Detek took down tens of soldiers before meeting their sandy graves. The great sacrifice of the Deteks in defense of their freedom awakened the Great Desert Spirit from his centuries-long slumber; He turned the dying Deteks into living sands that merged into a colossal sandstorm and wiped the remnants of the Sultan's army. A blood-covered Alric was all that was left standing when sandstorm cleared out; With his heart filled with revenge and sorrow, he faced the Sultan and ended his cruel reign with one stroke of his sword. To honor the spirits of the Deteks and Alric's bravery, the Great Desert Spirit granted Alric one gift before disappearing under the sands: to call his former brethren to aid him in battle as mighty Sand Warriors. Skills SWORDSMANSHIP (passive) (1/2/3 hero points): : Improves basic attack damage by 2/4/6 points. SPIKED ARMOR (passive) (1/2/3 hero points): : When damaged, Alric returns 10%/30%/60% of that damage. TOUGHNESS (passive) (1/2/3 hero points): : Increases Alric's life by 30/60/90 points. FLURRY (active, cooldown: 8/7/6 seconds) (2/2/2 hero points): : Special manuevre that strikes its opponent 2/4/6 times in quick succession. SAND WARRIORS (active, cooldown: 10 seconds) (2/2/2 hero points): : Summons 1/2/3 sand warriors to aid him in battle for 8 seconds. Stats Alric has a 10% health regeneration, healing at 38(41/47/56) health per second at level 10. Tips and Tricks Alric is among the best (if not the best) melee heroes in Kingdom Rush: Frontiers, designed to guard choke points against hordes of enemies and absolutely destroy them; and especially be able to hold stronger enemies that would easily rip through normal soldiers. He has the best stats: lots of health, massive damage, heavy armor and a decent heal rate. He can safely tank and kill most enemies without problem, and is still able to hold the line extremely well even when under overwhelming pressure. Currently, Alric is the most durable hero against physical damage in the game, even better than Grawl, the Stone Giant. Alric has only two active skills: Flurry and Sand Warriors, both of which recharge very quickly and have a significant impact on the battlefield. * Flurry is Alric's major damage source. At tier III, it deals over 200 physical damage to one target, enough to severely wound or kill any regular foe. However, Flurry's main strength comes from its abnormally fast recharge of just 6 seconds, the shortest of all skills of heroes in Kingdom Rush: Frontiers; when Flurry kills a foe, it is not long before it kills again, so the number of enemies is reduced rapidly. It is very effective even against the powerful Gorillion or Executioner. If Alric is of level 6 or higher, he can kill these two enemies before they do. ** Although Flurry does not ignore armor, the huge amount of damage that it dishes out is enough to damage even armored foes like Immortals, so Alric can still kill these enemies quite well. ** It should be your priority to upgrade this skill above all others: it allows Alric to quickly get rid of enemies so that he can go block others and kill them. This also makes him take less damage and gives him more time to heal, increasing his overall survivability. ** Flurry synergies with Swordsmanship: the higher the base damage goes, the stronger Flurry becomes. You can try alternatively upgrading these two to maximize Alric's damage output within the given amount of Hero Points. * Sand Warriors allows Alric to block additional enemies. However, unlike Cronan's Boars or Ingvar Bearclaw's Ancestors, these sand warriors are not made to last, nor to guard. Once summoned, they relentlessly proceed forth on the path in the form of small sand twisters, seeking enemies to block. This makes Sand Warriors more of a ranged attack than a summon skill; and since these warriors only last for around 8 seconds, they are basically inexpensive and replaceable meat shields to continuously distract enemies. ** Most regular enemies cannot kill the Sand Warriors before their 8-second lifespan expires, and since the skill recharges in 10 seconds, the Sand Warriors can come back with full health just 2 seconds after they normally crumble, making them very effective at slowing enemies down. ** You can utilize Sand Warriors to block enemies on one path, then send Alric into another to kill the enemies there; or allows Alric to support his Sand Warriors by killing off foes the Sand Warriors are fighting, freeing them to stall others. When fully upgraded, Alric and his Sand Warriors can reinforce a choke point or even make one on their own. Always place Alric next to your main choke point. Not only he will seal the spot with his sand warriors, Alric will kill lesser enemies quickly, much reducing the pressure put on the choke point. When necessary, do not fear to send Alric forward into a horde to thin them out, he rarely dies, thanks to the huge health bar and a great amount of armor. Tanking Alric against an especially strong enemy is a good tactic, as he can hold them for an extended period of time, longer than most other heroes. The most likely way for Alric to die is fighting Saurian Brutes because of sheer damage, or from the poison of Savage Hunters' darts, or the ranged attack of Saurian Blazefangs and Saurian Deathcoils, all of which deal True Damage, irresistible by armor. Also, he cannot defeat Bloodshells either, as those have 95% physical armor and will tank everything Alric does to them (although Spiked Armor deals True Damage which ignores its armor). While he still lasts for a while against these enemies, it is advised not to send Alric to confront them, instead make use of soldiers, skeletons and sand warriors to shield him. Also, DO NOT send him forth to attack the boss Nazeru as Nazeru possesses an instant kill attack. Nazeru will most likely destroy Alric before he even gets one hit off. Since Alric can heal himself fully in 10 seconds or less, retreating him is very much recommended when Alric is heavily wounded. This rarely happens though; even fire or poison is not a big problem for this big guy. Here are a few side notes on using Alric in different situations: * Alric excels against Parasytes. Face-hugged Sand Warriors just fall apart instead of becoming Reapers, and Spiked Armor wears them down (in 2 seconds) before they consume him. He cannot hold against four or more Parasytes though, so support him to effectively counter the Parasyte horde. **Two Flurry III of level 10 Alric is enough to kill one Reaper. Combine with the sand warriors, Alric can take out multiple of these creatures before they even have a chance to overwhelm him. ** Skeletons have the same attribute as Sand Warriors in this case: face hugged skeletons, when killed, simply fall apart, killing the Parasyte. Thus, you can support Alric with a Necromancer Tower, one should be enough to keep Parasytes from leaking through. * Alric makes a good pair with the Battle-Mecha T200, his Sand Warriors block and group enemies together, negating the Battle-Mecha's inability to block enemies by itself while fully utilizing the area damage of the bombs. Strengths # Superior melee capability: When fully upgraded, Alric is more than capable of holding the line against most enemies he encounters, and killing them faster than other heroes. Thus, you rarely have to be afraid when sending Alric to confront foes. #* Alric only falls to Saurian Brutes and Bloodshells in fair fights, and to groups of Saurian Blazefangs, Saurian Savants and Saurian Deathcoils when he is ambushed. #* You would still want to check Alric's health bar once every while since Alric can heal much faster than he respawns. #* Even the Shade Elementals who are summoned by the final boss Umbra, who deal very high damage, will not be able to do too much damage to Alric due to his high (65%) physical armor. However, it is not advised to let him continuously do combat with them, as they will still wear down his health eventually. # Sand Warriors: These extra units lend their hands to help Alric stall enemies. While they possess only a modest amount of health and are unarmored, the Sand Warriors are usually durable enough to not be killed before they crumble on their own, and after just 2 seconds, they come back at full health, so regular enemies are slowed down tremendously as they are constantly blocked by the Sand Warriors. #* Support Sand Warriors with other units to make up for their habit of crumbling and moving away further up the path. Any soldiers work well, but Necromancers are best since the skeletons are more numerous, and the mage can benefit from Alric's heavy physical damage output. #* Use Sand Warriors and Reinforcements to shield Alric from ranged foes to give Alric time to move out of harm's way. #* Use Sand Warriors to reinforce choke points. Weaknesses # Lack of a ranged attack: Alric lacks an effective method to kill from afar and is completely useless against flying enemies. You should always back him up with towers and move him into combat with ranged foes when needed. # Poor crowd control: Alric's sand warriors provide some crowd control against weaker enemies, but will quickly fall to stronger ones. In addition, his star skill, Flurry, can actually be a hindrance against large crowds of very weak enemies: he will perform the full, long animation for the move even if the enemy dies after one hit, making it hard for Alric to move from enemy to enemy in quick succession. # Slow movement speed: Alric moves extremely slowly (a bit slower than Malik in the first game), thus he is not very good at supporting multiple choke points at once. Utilize Reinforcements and your towers to help him handling other paths or set up a choke point where many paths are concurrent so that Alric can stop enemies from different fronts at once. # True damage: True damage bypasses his heavy armor, the thing that makes Alric amazingly durable. Keep him away from the true damage dealers. Such enemies include Savage Hunters and Saurian Blazefangs, Deathcoils, Savants and Brutes. # Heavily Armored enemies: Heavily armored enemies like the Giant Scorpion, Earth Shamans and Bloodshells take little damage from this hero and will take a long time to kill. However, if a mage tower is placed to attack the enemy while Alric blocks it, the armored enemy will still be destroyed quickly. Quotes * "Blood and sand!" * "I have no fear!" * "Stay Frosty!" * "Till shade is gone!" * (upon death) "Ahhh!" Trivia *The name Alric is a variant of the Germanic name "Alaric" which means Ruler of All. The name is composed of two elements, ala (all) and ric (ruler). *'"Blood and sand!"' ** Likely taken from the name Spartacus: Blood and Sand, the first season of an American TV series that ran from 2010-2013. *'"Stay Frosty!"' ** A common turn of phrase used in many films and TV shows to mean "stay alert". It may also be a reference to a song of the same name by American rock band Valen Halen. *'"Till shade is gone" ' ** A quote said by the Aiel, a desert race featured in the book series Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (specifically the third book The Dragon Reborn). The full quote is "Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit into Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day." Gallery HeroSkill_Alric_1.PNG|Sand Warrirors HeroSkill_Alric_2.JPG|Flurry Comic.jpeg|Alric in the frontiers intro Image.jpeg|Alric in the frontiers ending Video Category:Kingdom Rush: Frontiers Category:Heroes Category:Melee Heroes